ROLLIN' SHORTIES READATHON BOOKS IN PLAY

 HERE IS THE SPOT WHERE I'LL POST MY PROGRESS ON THE ROLLIN' SHORTIES CHALLENGE.  As I said before, I'm cheating and reading "THE HERO WHO RETURNED".  Since the first book read was bespoke, I've done spun the wheel and rolled the die for the second story.  So here's what my progress will look like;  stories have not been read by me until they are marked as read.  Ya git me?

1. 
   "The Hero Who Returned" by Gerald W. Page from ISAAC ASIMOV'S MAGICAL WORLD OF FANTASY 4:  SPELLS / Read
   
   
   
2. "The Shifting Growth" by Edgar Jepson & John Gawsworth from THE THIRD PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES / READ 
   
   
   
3. "Grisly Rites of Hitler's Monster Flesh Stripper" by Jim McDonald  from WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH edited by Robert Deis & Wyatt Doyle.  READ. 
   
   
   
4. "The Choking Chalice" by Frank Gruber from IT'S RAINING MORE CORPSES IN CHINATOWN.  READ
   
   
   
5. "Soapsuds" by J.E. Grinstead from WESTERN STORIES SELECTED BY GENE AUTRY.  READ
   
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6. "The Naked & the Deadly" by Lawrence Block from THE NAKED AND THE DEADLY by Lawrence Block.  READ.
7. 
   "Hungarian Rhapsody" by Robert Bloch from PLEASANT DREAMS by Robert Bloch.   READ.
8. 

   "Bayamo's Night of Terror" by Don Hogan from CUBA:  SUGAR, SEX AND SLAUGHTER   READ.
9. 

   "Strange Journey" by Robert Leslie Bellem  from THE SURGEON OF SOULS by Robert Leslie Bellem  READ.
10. 
    "Crucifixus etiam" by Walter M. Miller Jr.  from A CENTURY OF SCIENCE FICTION 1950-1959.   READ.
11. 
    "Coffins Are For Corpses" by Robert Silverberg from MONSTERS AND THINGS by Robert Silverberg.  READ.
    
12. "My Sister is a Werewolf" by Jack Prelutsky from BEWARE by R.L. Stine.  READ.  But now, here's the controversy.  This is only a 1 page poem.  Who'da thunk R.L. Stine would throw a monkey toe into the whole shebang.  Now, do I leave it here and move on to the next story or. . . ONLY read stories so read the next following story in RL Stine's BEWARE???  UPDATE:  Well, the consensus (meaning Cheeks) is that if the die roll picked a poem, then a poem it shall be.  Moving on.

    
13. "The Noseless Horror" by Robert E. Howard from THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD.  READ.
14. 
    

STORIES ON DECK

"The Man Who Liked Dogs" by Raymond Chandler from KILLER IN THE RAIN by Raymond Chandler.  Still To Be Read.

"The Glance" by Stefan Grabinski from THE DARK DOMAIN by Stefan Grabinski.  Still To Be Read.

"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne from CLASSIC HORROR TALES from Canterbury Classics.  Still To Be Read.

"The Man From Alcatraz" by John K. Butler from AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by John K. Butler.  Still To Be Read.

RAWHIDE [1951]

 This is an absolute gem of a Western I never really hear people talk about but this may now be my favourite film directed by the old master Henry Hathaway.  And my favourite Tyrone Power film.  AND my favourite Susan Hayward film!  All this and I never saw it before now!

I never would've seen this film at all except for mention of it in a Susan Hayward biographical doc I happened to watch.  The film looked good so I went and ordered the blu ray.  How have I never seen it before now?!?  The film takes place basically in one location:  a relay station/rest stop of the Overland Mail Company called Rawhide Pass where stagecoaches heading west (or east) put in for a plate of beans.  The station is in the middle of nowhere (actually Lone Pine, California -- somewhere between Mt. Whitney and Death Valley) and is manned by two men:  Sam Todd (Edgar Buchanan) and young Tom Owens (Tyrone Power).  Owens is the son of the Overland Mail Co.'s manager and has been sent there to learn how to "rough it" and how to put in an honest day's work.  A stagecoach full of passengers pulls into the outpost; one of which is steely Vinnie Holt (Susan Hayward) along with little baby Callie (Judy Ann Dunn).  Some cavalry men arrive with news that a killer named Rafe Zimmerman (Hugh Marlowe) has escaped with a few other prisoners from Huntsville.  The cavalrymen will escort the stagecoach but Overland company policy forbids sending a child into danger so Vinnie and Callie must stay behind at Rawhide Station.  Vinnie fights like a wildcat to be allowed to go but Sam orders Tom to drag her from the stagecoach and they leave without her.  

A fuming Vinnie takes possession of Tom's quarters and takes his gun while she goes to to a nearby hot spring to take a bath.  Meanwhile, Zimmerman and his goons ride into Rawhide Pass outpost and take Sam and Tom prisoner.  As Vinnie returns to the outpost, she sees Sam make a break for his rifle only to be gunned down by outlaw Tevis (a marvelously slimy Jack Elam).  She ducks down behind the horse trough and unknowingly loses Tom's gun and gun belt there.  The outlaws see her and take her prisoner.  Assuming that Vinnie and Callie are Tom's wife and daughter, all three are locked up in Tom's room while Zimmerman and his motley band of outlaws wait for the gold stage to arrive tomorrow morning.

Almost like a film noir with horses, RAWHIDE gives us the old familiar trope of some people held hostage by killers but Hathaway (and Dudley Nichols superb script) bring a freshness to the proceedings that make for a taut, nail-biter of a western.  I'm not one of those people who think Tyrone Power was just a pretty face who couldn't act; but here Power gives probably the best performance I've seen him give.  He totally subsumes his "Tyrone Power" persona and gives a performance as Tom Owens that shows the character over-his-head and trying desperately to think of a way to get them out of this dangerous situation.  Power depicts the genuine fear and desperation of the character wonderfully. 

The entire cast is, without exception, exceptionAL!  Edgar Buchanan as the crotchedy old hand Sam Todd is lovable as usual.  Hugh Marlowe was known to me for most of my life as a rather stodgy, bland actor of such classic fifties science fiction films as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS but her really shines in westerns like Henry Hathaway's GARDEN OF EVIL (which I only just saw last month) and, even better, here in RAWHIDE.  In fact, RAWHIDE is probably the best Hugh Marlowe performance I've seen as the educated killer Zimmerman who is saddled with a random handful of outlaws who are with him only because they happened to escape prison along with him.  Marlowe's exasperation at these misfits is always just under the surface as Zimmerman tries his best to both get them to do what he tells them and also keep his prisoners in check.  Speaking of the outlaws, we have another handful of stupendously great actors:  Jack Elam as the snake-like Tevis, George Tobias (probably best known as TV's Abner Kravitz from BEWITCHED) as the loyal hound dog Gratz, and Dean Jagger as the dim-witted fan of fancy clothes Yancy.  These are not your usual bunch of outlaw second bananas but each actor gives a fully rounded performance leaving the outlaw bunch clearly-defined.  I can't even believe I'm going to say this but even infant Judy Ann Dunn gives an actual performance as little Callie!  

But above all, the film belongs to Susan Hayward who is tough-as-nails while remaining totally feminine and is the true hero of the movie. 

Hayward's performance here is actually pretty remarkable as she protects the baby at all costs while refusing to let any man treat her as a doormat.  Even while the outlaws have her at gunpoint and she is forced to do what they say, Hayward never appears cowed or resigned to her fate.  At one point, she even berates Tyrone Power for meekly going along with them without trying to find an escape route.  It is Hayward's character who spurs Power into action; however, at no point does he become "the hero" of the film.  At most, he could be called "co-hero" with Susan Hayward as the true backbone of the film.  In fact, no romance is remotely possible in the first half of the film because Tom Owens is simply not good enough for Vinnie; it's only after she shows him the way to bravery that he can become worthy of her.  So, by the end of the film when Vinnie shows a true affection for Tom, it seems completely believable and organic instead of the usual crammed-in Hollywood romantic angle.

RAWHIDE is a no-nonsense, clear-eyed tense thriller of a western that you've just gotta see if you haven't already.  Masterly directed from an excellent script with a top notch cast and beautifully photographed by Milton R. Krasner taking full advantage of the rugged, bleak beauty of Lone Pine.

"SPARKS THAT FALL LIKE MISSILES OF HATE":  HELL'S HINGES (1916). 

This silent co-directed by Charles Swickard, William S. Hart and Clifford Smith features really the first Western movie superstar:  the laconic William S. Hart himself.  Born in New York in the same year that Abraham Lincoln was shot, Hart grew up in the Midwest when it still held on to what was left of the "real Old West".  Hart went on the stage and made a hit in a 1905 production of "THE SQUAW MAN" and soon ended up in Hollywood usually playing his patented "good-badman" (Edward Buscombe, THE OXFORD HISTORY OF WORLD CINEMA, 1997) -- I guess something like the male equivalent of the "whore with the heart of gold"???  Anyway, in 1913 Thomas Ince snapped up the actor to appear in many Westerns shot at his legendary Santa Ynez, California studio known as "Inceville" where Hart headlined a lot of oaters (both two-reelers and features) for two years.  Both Ince and Hart moved to Triangle Films in 1915 where, a year later, they made "HELL'S HINGES"; which was quite the box-office winner.

The story goes. . . Reverand Robert Henley (Jack Standing) is a parson whose faith is rather wishy-washy; in fact he's being sent west by his church superiors to a small prairie town in order to keep Henley away from the "temptations of the big city".  Henley's pious sister Faith (Claire Williams) goes with him to "help him settle in".  Unfortunately, the town which the Henleys are sent to is nicknamed "Hell's Hinges" because it's one of the most wicked towns in the west!  Now, here we have the well-known Western trope of the wicked Western town civilised usually by a "good" woman from the East.  And if that was the story here, this would be a rather forgettable movie.  However, HELL'S HINGES turns that already hackneyed plot on its ear.  Rev. Henley and his sister succeed in building a church in town despite local boss Silk Miller (Alfred Hollingsworth) hiring cynical gunman "Blaze" Tracy (William S. Hart) to run them out of town.  During their first church meeting, the rowdy townspeople bust in and turn the services into a hootenanny.  "Blaze" arrives and, upon seeing the oh-so-good Faith Henley, is quickly converted to Christianity and becomes her defender.  "I reckon God ain't wantin' me much, ma'am," says "Blaze", "but when I look at you, I feel I've been ridin' the wrong trail."  The weak-willed charlatan preacher Bob Henley is shortly corrupted by whiskey at Silk Miller's saloon doled out by town prostitute (Louise Glaum) and is soon helping the naughty townspeople burn down his own church while "Blaze" Tracy is out of town.  Somehow during the kerfuffle Henley is shot and killed.  When "Blaze" finally rides into town and sees Faith cowering over her murdered brother while the church burns to the ground, he is filled with righteous rage and heads over to Silk Miller's saloon where he corrals all the wicked townsfolk inside and set it on fire -- refusing to let any of them leave!  The film ends with a great deal of Old Testament wrath all around and the town levelled by the "sparks that fall like missiles of hate" quoted at the beginning of this post.  The entire film, actually, is surprisingly grim and downbeat for a Western where the sinful town actually defeats the moral, religious Easterners this time around.  There is a small ray of hope tacked onto the film's ending but all in all the entire tone of the film is quite surprisingly gritty. 

***

HELL'S HINGES (at least the print I saw) moves along at quite a clip and is under an hour in length; this probably ensures there aren't any "draggy" bits where the movie slows to a crawl.  Everything happens in an economical, plot-driven fashion and the movie hurtles towards it's dark climax before you know it.  The usual melodramatic "silent film-style" of acting is also missing; everyone in the film follows a more natural, less stylized acting style probably signaled by the quiet, stoic acting of Hart himself.  This is a film I wouldn't mind seeing remade but the perfect star for it would be Clint Eastwood and he should've remade it about 20 years ago.  Even though William S. Hart didn't become a star until he was around 50 years of age, Eastwood today is still rather too old for the part now.  There is something of the feel of Eastwood's own "UNFORGIVEN" about this film and I wonder if ole Clint has seen "HELL'S HINGES".  All in all, though not a spectacularly great film, HELL'S HINGES is a solid Western which is quite interesting in its deviations from typical Western tropes of the time (and long after as well); and at it's 53 minute running time should be seen by those interested in early cinema or Westerns as a genre.  This, in fact, is quite easy to do since I watched the entire film on youtube and here's the link: 

click here to watch HELL'S HINGES on youtube

Go check it out.